


Sun's Cold Embrace

by optimus_pam



Series: Splashes of Color [3]
Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe, Day Three: Yellow, F/M, Peeta's Paint Box, Prompts in Panem, Romeo and Juliet AU, Secret Marriage, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-07
Updated: 2014-10-07
Packaged: 2018-02-20 05:29:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2416607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/optimus_pam/pseuds/optimus_pam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day Three: Yellow.<br/>"O, now be gone; more light and light it grows...<br/>More light and light; more dark and dark our woes!" — Romeo and Juliet, Act III, scene iv<br/>It was always dangerous to love thine enemy. But Katniss could stop loving Peeta Mellark no more than she could stop breathing, than the sun could stop rising in the east. No matter how crossed their stars, she would love him. Always. (For Day 3: Yellow. Everlark Romeo + Juliet).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sun's Cold Embrace

Friar Abernathy took small sips from a flask hidden inside his robes while walking them down the darkened corridor. He led them through several winding passageways before they finally arrived at a small room at the back of the large church. Small candles were lit throughout the room, giving it a soft yellow glow. Katniss had never given much thought to her wedding, but as a daughter of House Everdeen she never imagined her only love would spring from her only hate.

But there she stood before Friar Abernathy, hand in hand with Peeta Mellark. A golden halo of light surrounded them as they spoke their clandestine vows. After, Peeta accepted the hearty congratulations of their only witnesses, his man Cinna and her lady Portia.

She caught a dark look in the Friar's gray eyes. "If you do not approve why did you consent to marry us?" She questioned.

"Sweetheart,  _these violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which as they kiss consume. Therefore love moderately; long love doth so,"_ he warned.

"Have you no other words for us, man of God?" She asked with a sneer, sick of his riddles.

"Stay alive, Sweetheart. Above all else, stay alive."

* * *

Could the Friar's warning have only been given that morning? How could the sweet taste of joy suddenly become bitter ashes in her mouth?

Katniss paced across her room wondering how in three hours of being a wife, she could have mangled it. She couldn't speak ill of her departed cousin Gale, for he was her kinsman, but neither could she curse Peeta, her husband, for slaying him.

Her torn heart beat faster at the sounds outside her window, and she was overcome with joy and anguish at the sight of Peeta. His warm, steady embrace assured her, but the raging storm of her emotions would not be calmed so easily.

"Damn you!" She cried into his shoulder, "You scared me to death!"

Despite the cuts and bruises on his face, nothing could mar the beauty of his smile. His full pink lips rose up at the corners and his blue eyes shined bright in the silvery moonlight. But the smile quickly vanished from his face. His shoulders slumped with grief and solemnity. "Gale died at my hands and for that I am sorry."

She tangled her hands in his thick head of blond curls, still grimy with sweat and blood from the fray, and forced him to meet her eyes.

"You slew Gale, he slew Finnick. No one is without sin."

He hesitated. "I wasn't sure if you knew about Finnick."

"I know, Peeta," she spoke reassuringly. "I know you never would have killed my kinsman without cause."

"Never," he echoed.

They held each other for long moments, breathing each other in. Katniss was sure he must smell the forest on her skin, for she had run through it aimlessly at the news of Gale's death and Peeta's banishment. Underneath the harsh metallic odor of blood and pungent smell of sweat, Peeta smelled almost sweet, like cinnamon and dill.

She felt his pulse hammering beneath his skin, adrenaline still coursing through his body. Katniss placed gentle, soothing kisses at the juncture between his neck and shoulder.

"Come, let's to bed with you," she entreated him. He moved slowly and that's when Katniss saw the bruises on his side and the bandage on his leg.

"He wounded you?" She asked, eyes wide with fear.

"More than a scratch, but not enough to make a grave man of me," he tried to joke.

Her scowl deepened. "I would not like to become a widow the same day I become a wife, Peeta."

"Nor would I, my lady," he said with a small smile.

She guided him to the mattress and helped him undress. Her eyes explored his broad shoulders as she unlaced the ties at the collar of his shirt. Her hands quickly followed, mapping the warm, pale skin so in contrast to her dusky, olive tone.

Peeta sucked in a breath as he raised his arms over his head so that she could ease his shirt off. She drank in the sight of him. He may have been beaten but her dandelion in the spring was far from broken.

His hands did not stay idle, just as Katniss finished removing his boots she felt a warm pair of hands cradle her hips. Peeta pulled her close and buried his face in her stomach. He heaved a deep sigh before looking up into her eyes. "I want you, but I don't deserve you," he lamented.

She took his face in her hands, her gray eyes boring into his blue ones. "Perhaps not, but I want you and I deserve to have exactly what I want Peeta Mellark."

Her words lit a spark in his eyes. He suddenly rose up, clutched Katniss around the waist and spun them around. Katniss landed with a bounce, her back hitting the feather bed. Peeta hovered above her with his weight resting on his elbows.

"You love me. Real or not real?" He asked, his soul laid bare in his eyes.

"Real."

He took her lips in a searing kiss, paying attention first to her top and then her bottom lip before sweeping his tongue into her mouth.

Katniss moaned at the contact, her breath escaping in a rush. The blood pounded in her veins, sending spikes of pleasure throughout her body. Her hands roved over the muscles of his back, chest and shoulders before plunging into his soft silky hair.

He released her lips with a gasping breath before attacking the delicate flesh of her neck. His hands reached up to release her dark hair, still bound in an intricate plait from the ceremony earlier that day.

Katniss' breath hitched as he slowly undid the laces of her gown, revealing her dusky skin inch by inch. She sat up and quickly shucked the gown from her body, emitting a shy small laugh when her skirts tangled about her ankles.

Fire burned in Peeta's eyes at the sight of Katniss in her chemise. She met his heated gaze with one of her own, admiring his strong jaw, broad chest and lean hips. Heat bloomed in her cheeks when her eyes were inexorably drawn to the bulge in his trousers.

"Katniss, I don't care if you see me. I  _want_ you to see me," he breathed.

Emboldened, she reached across the space between them and hastily untied Peeta's trousers and breeches, allowing them to fall gracelessly at his feet. Her heart thundered in her chest as she took in the sight of his beautiful, naked body. His lips claimed hers at the same time their bodies crashed together, landing none too gracefully on the bed. His hands were suddenly everywhere, guiding the soft cotton of her chemise off her body and on to the floor. They shuddered at the overwhelming sensation of bare skin on bare skin.

Katniss keened at the sensation of her hardened nipples grazing Peeta's chest. He worked his way down her body, nuzzling against the tender, heated flesh of her breasts before taking first one and then the other into the warm, wet heat of his mouth. Katniss shut her eyes and groaned at the gentle pressure, pleasure radiating throughout her body.

Peeta's mouth worked his way down her body until his kiss enveloped her very being. His lips and tongue, which she already knew be to so talented in speech, were equally as skilled at this new task. She was gasping and panting as pleasure radiated from her core. She felt on the precipice of something great, but when Peeta clutched her hand tightly in his, forcing her gray eyes to clash with his blue, a dam broke within her, suffusing her body in glorious, delicious ecstasy.

She brought her fingers to his seemingly bee stung lips as he crawled back up the bed, hovering over her. Katniss tentatively pecked him, tasting herself on his lips but quickly deepened the kiss, swiping her tongue against his.

Peeta released a growl low in his throat when she brushed her wet core against him. He placed a delicate kiss on her lips before gently guiding himself inside her body. Katniss gasped at the intrusion, mystified that one act could make her body feel so much pleasure and so much pain.

"Katniss," he moaned, his face buried in her hair.

"Peeta," she exhaled against his shoulder.

Peeta slowly made love to his new bride, gently rocking his hips into hers until she grasped his backside and plaintively demanded, "More, Peeta...just  _more._ "

His name was a breathless shout as she found her release, he quickly followed groaning into her sweat-soaked neck.

Peeta tenderly swept her hair from her face and placed delicate kisses across her cheeks and brow before joining their lips. The star-crossed lovers fell into restful slumber, until roused by the faint light of dawn.

As if he had been born the son of a baker rather than that of a lord, Peeta had always risen with the sun. Katniss scowled at the morning bird's song, cursing the lark for calling her lover from her bed.

" _Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day: It was the nightingale, and not the lark,"_  she said, nuzzling his neck.

" _It was the lark, the herald of the morn, no nightingale...I must be gone and live, or stay and die,"_  he spoke as he gathered his discarded clothing, his eyes pleading for her to understand.

"I wish you didn't have to leave Panem, I wish for you to stay with me," she confessed quietly, resting her head upon his shoulder

"I would stay with you always, my love, if I could. But banishment is better than death and we shall meet again," he said, turning in her arms to claim her lips in a kiss.

Katniss rose from the bed, clutching the sheet to her body. She pulled back the curtains, revealing the yellow light of the sun which until that moment had never felt so cold. She much preferred the moon's gentler embrace now, for the sun's harsh light was naught but laughter in her face. Each beam calling her lover from her side.

She straightened her shoulders and steeled her resolve, with one last bruising kiss she bid Peeta farewell.  _"O, now be gone; more light and light it grows."_

" _More light and light; more dark and dark our woes!"_ He called to her as he climbed down the balcony.

She watched the sun's yellow light embrace him as he escaped from Panem, bound for Mantua. Despite all the tender words and passionate kisses exchanged, Katniss felt cold dread envelop her at the prophetic ring of Peeta's parting words.


End file.
